This week I talked about the real purpose and effect of schooling our children. I talked about the idea that crony capitalists and the government made a conscious choice over a hundred years ago to try to tame the American citizenry to be good corporate citizens. There is much evidence to support this and I had at least three informed callers who offered their knowledge confirming this. The best source for both understanding the origins and purpose of the current system as well as insight into what real education is
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The Ultimate History Lesson with John Taylor Gatto
If you’ve never heard of John Taylor Gatto you are really missing something. John Taylor Gatto was New York City Teacher of the Year three times when he worked in Harlem. He quit his job, while still holding the title of Teacher of the Year, in an oped article in the Wall Street Journal saying that he no longer wished to hurt children. Gatto is one of those very rare people (like Ron Paul) who have the intelligence, character, drive and interest to pursue the truth for its own sake, to actually succeed in uncovering some of it and to share it with those of us ready to recognize it.
Wesley Clark, Leon Panetta & Meir Dagan: On & About This Week's Show
On the show this week, I talked about why Iran is in the crosshairs. I played some interesting clips of General Wesley Clark laying it all out during the Bush years (of course he sings a different tune now that his side is in the White House–that’s interesting too!)
Here are the clips of Wesley Clark. The first one is him telling about Bush & Co. plotting to reshape the world, while the second clip has him spinning a different yarn for his teammate Obama.
Being Irish Helped Me Understand the Regressive Nature of Crack
Despite my appearance (and my name!), I’m half Irish. I’m even a citizen of Ireland (and the U.S. of course) with two of my grandparents–Irish as Paddy’s Pigs–emigrating from County Mayo through Ellis Island to Brooklyn nearly a hundred years ago.
Being raised by a first generation Brooklynite of purely Irish stock, I absorbed a great deal of Irish culture, lore and attitudes. Perhaps that’s why I’m an anarcho-capitalist: Ireland, I have read, had a thousand years of non-centralized, non-coercive government which was peaceful and orderly and had the happy effect of making its untamed population difficult for the English to conquer. I only discovered this fun fact in my adult life, however. What I gleaned of Ireland in my childhood included, among other things, that the Irish, at least our line, were poor. I also got the impression that the English were not.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on the Afghan Massacre: "War Is Hell"
After the horrible massacre in Afghanistan over the weekend in which 16 Afghani civilians–mostly children–were mowed down in their home in the middle of the night, allegedly by a single unhinged US soldier (although there are reports of two or more “drunk, laughing” US soldiers), Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said, “War is hell.” Panetta said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the incident, but he also said this “wasn’t the first and won’t be the last” of this kind of horrible event, adding “I do not believe there is any reason to change our strategy [in Afghanistan] at this time.”
At one time I was stoic about things like this, as Mr. Panetta seems to be. War IS hell and if you have to have war you will have these kinds of horrors. But do we really HAVE to have all this war? I won’t revisit going into Iraq or Afghanistan, or even Libya, but let’s think hard about going into Syria and Iran. When President Obama and others say they will stop at nothing to protect the US or its interests, they are saying they will fight wars for oil or for money or some other economic interest–what else might our interests be? Either our interests are military and in defense of this country or the countries that border us, or they are overseas interests which are purely economic, regardless (I have come to believe) of the lip-service we pay to protecting vulnerable peoples.
The massacre in Afghanistan is evidence of a deep and serious problem. Our military commit atrocities in the prosecution of unjust wars and this behavior destroys the hearts and minds of the men and women who do the bloody work (see second video below). I actually think it even destroys the puppets near the top. I heard rumors (that I believe) claiming that George W. Bush was drinking again before he left office (I actually saw a video showing him drinking a beer in Germany–not the act of a recovering alcoholic) and I suspect we’ll see signs of strain on the psyche of our current commander-in-chief if he continues to play his part and bring us into more wars of aggression.
Here is a video on the reaction in Afghanistan to the massacre.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZZAdVf70OU]
And here is a video I randomly stumbled upon–not looking for soldier confessions, it just happened to pop up. It’s the first video I’ve ever watched on the subject and in the soldier’s matter-of-factness is the chilling ring of truth.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5gawnUeY&feature=related]
War IS hell, that is a very apt metaphor, Mr. Panetta, but you better hope that hell is only a figure of speech, because waging unjust wars may pave the road to the real one.
Letter to the WSJ: It IS Too Easy Being Green, But Why?
There was an article this weekend in the Wall Street Journal called It’s Too Easy Being Green, by David Owen. Here’s the letter I wrote to the editor in response–maybe they’ll publish it, maybe they won’t, but in any case, I can share it here.
Dear Sir:
David Owen, in his article, It’s Too Easy Being Green, points out the paradox of trying to be green in a consumption-driven world and cites the ease and push to consume as the real problem. I agree with Mr. Owen that over-consumption is a problem (though my concern is more for the wasteful and rapid use of finite resources than fear of global warming.) In any case, Mr. Owen failed to cite the real reason driving and flying are so cheap, and why fuel itself is so affordable: government policy.
Governments build roads and airports socializing the cost of infrastructure and removing that part of the equation from end-user consumption decisions. By building ever-widening networks of highways, the government encourages developers to build further out of town and allows workers to make farther commutes; by building more airports, the government subsidizes airfare allowing businesses and families to budget for more travel. (Many believe private transportation infrastructure is impossible but all airports used to be private and before the Civil War there were over 400 private road companies in the U.S.)
Another way the government promotes energy use is by employing America’s military to ensure that Middle Eastern oil is in friendly hands. These costly adventures, while greatly increasing the ultimate tax burden on Americans overall, greatly reduces the cost of fuel to the individual consumer.
Finally, government itself is responsible for the low cost of polluting, having decided more than a century ago not to allow strict interpretation of property rights to interfere with pollutants spewed onto private property from factories.
We don’t need government solutions to government-driven problems–take government down to its true function of protecting people and their property and the market will limit consumption and pollution.
Sincerely,
Monica Perez
Is Operation Fast & Furious Obama’s Iran-Contra?
I think there’s much more to Operation Fast & Furious than we’ve heard about so far. Will it bring down Eric Holder? How about Obama? Listen to my take on the developing story: Monica Perez Fast and Furious
Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve
A friend recently asked me to recommend a book that explains the Fed. In my efforts to find the best book to introduce the topic, I came upon this documentary. Although it must be several decades old, it clearly and thoroughly lays out the basics of money and the Fed and can serve as an … Read more
Review of Democracy, The God That Failed, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
For my review of this book, click: Continue reading…
Joe Sobran, brought to me by twitter…
I have a bit of a twitter problem–it keeps me up way past my bedtime and delays me from starting my day’s work. I’m not sure whether or not to feel guilty about this. Am I educating myself or amusing myself? Does this count as work or leisure? Is following twitter the future equivalent of reading the newspaper everyday, or is it merely a narcissistic distraction? Well, this morning decided the issue: I happened upon a tweet by @libertarianmike: “The chances of being harmed by terrorists are mathematically minute. The chance of being robbed by your own govt? That’s easy:100%–J.Sobran.” I recalled that my father (a Classical Liberal like Ron Paul) loved Joe Sobran, but I still pegged Sobran for a neo-con, so complete had I thought was that sect’s dominance of conservatism. I had to follow up, though, just to be sure. I searched for Sobran references in other tweets and each one was better than the last, so I looked for Sobran’s twitterfeed. I obviously didn’t know much about Joe, because apparently he died in September 2010, so no twitterfeed. Still intrigued, I started googling “Joe Sobran” and found a tribute, upon his death, by neo-con Ann Coulter*, and another one by one of my favorite libertarian anarchists, Professor Robert Higgs–this was getting interesting…Upon further googling, I quickly found an article by Mr. Sobran himself on LewRockwell.com explaining beautifully his conversion from conservative to philosophical anarchist, a conversion I myself had undergone. Now I will add Joe Sobran to my list of favorite anarchists, and will read everything by him I can get my hands on–if I can stop tweeting long enough!
All of this simply to share with you these illuminating articles by and about Joe Sobran, which I wouldn’t have found if I were not addicted to twitter….
The Reluctant Anarchist, by Joe Sobran
Joe Sobran, 1946-2010, by Robert Higgs
Not Your Average Joe, by Ann Coulter*
*To her credit and my great surprise, I just saw that Ann Coulter said she would prefer Ron Paul to Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee. Who knows? Maybe an intriguing tweet set her on a new path!
UPDATE: Apparently, Joe and William F. Buckley had a public feud. For Joe’s side of the story, read How I Was Fired by Bill Buckley, by Joe Sobran